History And High-Tech Live Happily Ever After

21st-century automation at a 19th-century luxury hotel leaves sense of history intact while providing guests with touchscreen control.

Lighting at the New York Palace is not the standard hotel-room treatment. There are lighting themes for working and relaxing during the day or night and separate themes for the bath and the bedroom. N early 100 years separate three phases of construction at the New York Palace hotel in New York City. The original mansion, built by railroad tycoon Henry Villard in 1882, still stands today as the marbled grand entrance to this timeless property. But pass through the elegant courtyard and up the grand staircase and you find yourself in a 55-story black tower added to the hotel by Sherman and Leona Helmsley in 1981.

The Tower rooms have played host to celebrity and royalty alike for more than 30 years. But, after three decades, the hotel began to show its age. Thus, when Northwood Hospitality, New York, purchased the hotel in 2013, the owners initiated a third phase of renovation, together with a technology upgrade, that began with the 167 rooms that make up the top 14 floors of the tower.

Called in to assist with the upgrade, building-technology integrator Bill Lally of Mode:Green, Orlando, FL, knew immediately that a Crestron 3-series control system (Rockleigh, NJ) would be the solution for the rooms. “The advantage of the control system in each room is its internal wireless gateway,” said Lally. The Crestron InfiNET EX is a two-way RF gateway/transceiver that allows multiple wireless devices to be connected and managed reliably, even in areas such as New York City, where there is a great deal of RF interference. Through the gateway, the system controls the room climate, door locks, window shades, audio, and lighting. It’s as simple as touching a button on a bedside 7-in. touch screen that Lally chose to be the focal point for the guest.

“The lighting here is not your standard hotel room treatment,” said Lally. “There are lighting themes for working and relaxing during the day or at night. There are separate themes for the bath

and the bedroom, and additional themes for those suites that have living areas as well.” Guests no longer have to search for a light switch because in-wall dimmers wirelessly integrate floor and table lamps with the bedside touch screen, a keypad Lally placed on the opposite bedside table, and Cameo keypads on the wall at the entrance to each room. Each of these controllers makes it simple to switch from one theme to another.

The gateway also provides the backbone for the Saflok, Madison Heights, MI, door-locking system. “This is a great advantage of the gateway, since it eliminates the need for a redundant network solely to support the door locks,” Lally explained. The touch screen allows guests to lock and unlock the guestroom door, and it also provides controls for the audio and video systems. "If guests bring their own music, the audio system includes an in-wall docking station for the iPod that gives them complete access to all their playlists from the touch screen," said Lally. They can also use the touch screen to change TV channels, control volume levels, and play movies from the hotel’s video system. Crestron’s new shading solutions allowed the hotel to choose its own fabric and style for the fully automated window treatments. Each room has two sets of shades, sheer Roman and blackout, that work in tandem. Guests can enjoy the lights of midtown Manhattan or nearby St. Patrick’s Cathedral and still have some privacy when using the decorative sheer Roman shades. When they want to block out the world, the blackout shades automatically come down and the decorative sheers drop in front of them to maintain the room’s high-end appointments. Both shades operate with Crestron’s Quiet Motor technology. By using the shading solution there was no need to incorporate a third-party control system into the mix. Foreign visitors find the blackout shades to be a great advantage when trying to acclimate to the Eastern time zone. “High-end technology has become an expectation of the clientele the Palace is trying to attract,” Lally said. “They expect a luxury hotel to be every bit as comfortable as their homes.”

For Lally, there was one pleasant surprise to the tower room upgrades. “The rooms each had a Crestron system designed and installed in 1992,” he explained. The Cresnet cabling that runs throughout the building was still intact, and Mode:Green technicians were able to use it for the new InfiNET system. “It saved us and the hotel about $250,000 because we didn’t need to open up walls and run new cabling.” Considering how quickly technology changes, to find the infrastructure still fully functional and compatible with the newest technology was a big plus.

While the new technology helps create a better guest experience, the benefits don’t stop there. “We’ve integrated the window shades, thermostats, and occupancy sensors with the property-management system, so when a guest checks out we’re able to manage the energy pieces more effectively,” Lally explained. “For example, we’ll set back the heat during the winter and leave the curtains open to allow sunlight to help raise the room’s temperature. In the summer, we’ll close the blackout shades and set back the air conditioning.”

The upgrades have created one of the most cost-effective and energy-efficient integrated guest rooms to date. “We owe a lot of thanks to Crestron for their forward-thinking designs, allowing us to retrofit new technology onto an infrastructure that is 20 years old. That is very rare in the technology world. CBP

Left. Guests no longer have to search for a light switch because in-wall dimmers wirelessly integrate fl oor and table lamps with the bedside touch screen, a keypad on the opposite bedside table, and Cameo keypads on the wall at the entrance to each room.

Below. Each room has two sets of shades—sheer Roman and blackout—that work in tandem. Guests can enjoy the lights of midtown Manhattan or nearby St. Patrick’s Cathedral and still have some privacy when using the decorative sheer Roman shades.

DATA CACHE

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Listen to expert Kevin Callahan talk about building-automation trends in a Commercial Listen to expert Kevin Callahan talk about building-automation Conversation podcast. Conversation podcast.

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EDITORS’ CHOICE

Healthy-building concept

Healthy buildings:

• Products and systems enhance indoor spaces • Sun-shade/ventilation products work together • Elevates indoor air quality

HD camera Dinion IP imager 9000 HD camera provides perimeter protection and surveillance of critical infrastructures. With a rugged design and built-in active infrared lighting, the camera is said to withstand harsh weather and penetrate darkness. Auto exposure and image noise reduction reduce data bit rates and storage requirements.

Bosch Security Systems Inc., Fairport, NY Circle 51

 e company’s product and systems solutions are said to enhance the comfort of working and living spaces, while also fostering energy savings and, as integrated systems, result in healthy buildings.  ermal, visual, and acoustic comfort, and a supply of fresh air are the basic elements for a comfortable indoor environment.  e approach to healthy buildings integrates the company’s sun-shade and ventilation products, which work in tandem to temper the challenges associated with daylighting and a tighter building envelope. External with daylighting and a tighter building envelope. External louver and screen systems, including Sunclips, Icarus, Ziplouver and screen systems, including Sunclips, Icarus, ZipShade, and Top Max, defl ect sun rays. Sun-shade products Shade, and Top Max, defl ect sun rays. Sun-shade products combine with the company’s line of continuous/controlled combine with the company’s line of continuous/controlled ventilation to elevate indoor air quality. Night cooling soluventilation to elevate indoor air quality. Night cooling solutions are designed to reduce internal heat gains and facilitate tions are designed to reduce internal heat gains and facilitate fresh-air circulation.

Renson, El Segundo, CA

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Download a brochure on the Healthy Building Concept. Low-frequency sounder line Wheelock Exceder LED low-frequency sounder line meets NFPA fi re alarm and carbon monoxide 520-Hz code requirements for sleeping areas. The sounders and strobes can replace a facility’s existing appliances using the same pair of wires currently installed. The devices feature multiple modes of operation, including T3, T4, Continuous, and T3/T4. When the device is set to T3/T4, the appliance can switch from T3 to T4 based upon the condition sensed by the fi re-alarm control panel.

Eaton’s Cooper Notifi cation, Long Branch, NJ Circle 52

Fall protection Nano-Lok Edge is a personal self-retracting lifeline for foot-level tie-off and sharp-edge applications. The device retracts unused lifeline so workers can anchor at the feet and move freely at height. It includes an 8-ft. working length, ergonomic design, and is available in single or twin 100% tie-off units.

Capital Safety, Red Wing, MN Circle 53

Energy management The company offers an integrated set of services that enable businesses to optimize energy consumption, improve operational effi ciency, and generate income through load-response programs, using a circuit-level, cloud-based analytics solution. A sensor series is made of non-invasive, self-powered, miniature wireless current sensors. The sensors clamp on electrical outgoing wires from the circuit breaker and are powered by magnetic fi elds. Real-time current data are transmitted every 60 sec. to the cloud-based application.

Panoramic Power, New York Circle 54

Web-based security solution C-Cure 9000 SiteServer is a compact network device said to provide full-featured, low-cost access-control solutions for small sites and as many as 32 readers. The system is a single-box solution providing everything from designing and printing badges to monitoring day-to-day personnel activity. Pre-installed software and an intuitive startup provide easy operation.

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THERE’S MORE ON OUR WEBSITE You can find more Building Technology products on our website. Go to cbpmagazine.com.

The best power control systems provide for full manual operation

Monitoring and control ASCO PowerQuest 2.0-5700 integrates four advances that improve on-site power monitoring and control. Features include a universal interface that simplifies monitoring, controlling, and reporting on system status, and visualization of warnings. The dashboard and interface enhance the system’s plug-andplay capabilities. The system monitors and records data from third-party devices.

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Harmonic reduction system Energy Saver System Plus technology features a Harmonic Reduction System to detect and automatically correct harmonic currents before they affect data-center hardware. Part of the company’s Energy Advantage Architecture system, the product allows large, three-phase UPSs, operating in eco or energy-saving modes, to mitigate harmonics, correct power factor, and balance loads.

Eaton, Raleigh, NC Circle 57

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